Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Haneke has slammed the ongoing #MeToo movement in a new interview, characterizing the campaign by women who have accused promxfinent individuals of sexual misconduct as a “witch hunt” that should be “left in the Middle Ages.”
“This new puritanism colored by a hatred of men, arriving on the heels of the #MeToo movement, worries me,” the 75-year-old Amour director said in an interview with the Austrian news outlet Kurier.
“This hysterical pre-judgment which is spreading now, I find absolutely disgusting,” Haneke said, according to a translation by Deadline. “And I don’t want to know how many of these accusations related to incidents 20 or 30 years ago are primarily statements that have little to do with sexual assault.”
The filmmaker’s comments come as more than 100 prominent individuals in media, entertainment, and politics have been accused of sexual misconduct or abuse by dozens of women in recent months. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]HBO’s Bill Maher sat down with The New York Times’ Bari Weiss, and they discussed what everyone is thinking about the #MeToo movement.
Weiss, a liberal opinion editor for the Times, said she was ostracized by the far left after she came to comedian Aziz Ansari’s defense. She wrote a column — “Aziz Ansari Is Guilty. Of Not Being a Mind Reader” — after an anonymous woman accused the actor of assault when she says she actually just endured a bad date.
Maher agreed the threshold for what counts as harassment and assault is seemingly way too wide. He noted how actor Matt Damon was lambasted for suggesting society shouldn’t conflate patting someone on the butt and molestation. He later apologized, saying he should “close my mouth for a while.” – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]A female California Democratic lawmaker who played a prominent role in launching the #MeToo movement is currently under a #MeToo investigation herself for allegedly sexually harassing and groping two men, a former staffer and a prominent lobbyist. In its bombshell report on the investigation, Politico notes that the high-profile lawmaker’s alleged hypocrisy “threatens to seriously damage the nationwide movement that has been credited with bringing the issue of sexual harassment into the open.”
California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, who was featured on the cover of Time magazine’s “Silence Breakers” to honor her role as one of the first lawmakers to speak out against sexual harassment, is, as Politico describes her, “a powerful Democratic lawmaker” who serves as chair of the Legislative Women’s Caucus, and “one of Sacramento’s leading voices on the #MeToo issue.” She was one of hundreds of women from her area who signed a letter declaring “#WeSaidEnough” in protestation of sexual harassment and has claimed to have personally been a victim of harassment.
However, Garcia is also herself currently under investigation after two men accused her of sexual misconduct. Daniel Fierro of Cerritos, a former staffer to Assemblyman Ian Calderon, told Politico that in 2014, when he was 25, Garcia groped him after an Assembly softball game:
He said she cornered him alone after the annual Assembly softball game in Sacramento as he attempted to clean up the dugout. Fierro, who said Garcia appeared inebriated, said she began stroking his back, then squeezed his buttocks and attempted to touch his crotch before he extricated himself and quickly left. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]Step one to not being viewed as a sex object: Don’t pose nude for the camera.
Or, if you’re the editor of the upcoming Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, have female models turn their bodies into #MeToo canvases as they pose naked for men whose sole purpose for buying the issue is to stare at beautiful, naked, women.
That’s the questionable logic behind next week’s 2018 Swimsuit Issue, the first “of the #MeToo Era” in which “models were as much participants as objects,” Vanity Fair reported.
An SI.com preview of the issue shows Swedish model Paulina Porizkova lying down naked, face up, with the word “TRUTH” painted on her ribcage; Australian model Robyn Lawley standing naked and extending her left arm, which is emblazoned with the word “FEMINIST”; and Sailor Brinkley Cook, the daughter of model Christie Brinkley, lying naked on her side and staring at the camera, with the word “PROGRESS” written across her back.
Editor MJ Day, and her all-female team, wrote the SI Swimsuit staff, “Handed over the control to the women who are our brand” and “encouraged them to become a canvas and share their truth.”
Bold move for a brand whose audience is male, and whose success (the Swimsuit Issue has raked in $1 billion in its lifetime and accounts for 10% of Sports Illustrated’s annual revenue) is an exception to the magazine’s decline. – READ MORE
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